Refereeing the third round of the same transparency fight, the Second Circuit left court-watchers in suspense over whether it would shine a light on the government's reasons for targeting U.S. citizens abroad in drone strikes.

Two years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union scored a clean knock-out in the first round that revealed an important document about the government's so-called targeted-killing program, but the government had the civil-rights group on the ropes in the sequel, in which it protected the vast majority of its records.

After an hour-long Second Circuit match-up on Tuesday, the fate of the final chapter of the trilogy — which centers on the fight to disclose 59 more documents — is anybody's guess.